- Prince Mahāsattva and the Tigress
- The Boy Who Made Flowers Fall from the Sky
- The Golden Deer King
- The Golden Elephant and the Monk's Journey
- The Lamp That Changed Destiny
- The Patient Buffalo
- The Silver Tusked Savior
- The White Cloth
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 1
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 10
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 2
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 3
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 4
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 5
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 6
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 7
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 8
- The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma: Chapter 9
The Mirror Clarifying the Results of Karma (Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i sgrung 'grel las 'bras gsal ba'i me long) is a narrative commentary on the anecdotes that appear in the ten chapters of the Bodhicaryāvatāra by Wangchuk Rinchen (c. 12th cent), who was a disciple of Latö Könchok Khar and became the abbot of Nering. The stories presented here were translated by Gregory Forgues and Khenpo Könchok Tamphel.
Story 1 of Chapter 10
May those caught in the freezing ice be warmed, And from great clouds of Bodhisattvas Torrents rain in boundless streams To cool those burning in infernal fires.
Page(s) 164
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གྲང་བས་ཉམ་ཐག་དྲོ་ཐོབ་ཤོག །
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་ལས། ། བྱུང་བའི་ཆུ་བོ་མཐའ་ཡས་ཀྱིས། །
ཚ་བས་ཉམ་ཐག་བསིལ་བར་ཤོག །grang bas nyam thag dro thob shog_/
byang chub sems dpa'i sprin chen las/_/ byung ba'i chu bo mtha' yas kyis/_/
tsha bas nyam thag bsil bar shog_/Concerning the phrase, "May those caught in the freezing ice be warmed":
Hot and cold, and so forth—the three lower realms; By contaminated virtue—gods and humans; By skillful virtue—complete awakening: Thus, explain in detail acceptance and rejection.
For some beings, due to actions such as stealing the robes of the Three Jewels or casting living beings from dry land into water and so forth, they are born in the cold hells—such as Blistering, Broken Blister, Chattering Teeth, A-chu Sneezing, Kye-hud Crying, Utpala-Like Splits, Lotus-Like Splits, and Big Lotus-Like Splits. When born in these eight hells, beings experience suffering corresponding to the specific names of those realms.
As for their lifespan, it is said in the Treasury:[1]
From a sesame seed store, Every hundred years, one sesame seed is removed. When the store is emptied, That marks the lifespan of the Blistering Hell. The duration of the others is twenty times greater.
Thus, karma and its results are explained in detail.
Story 2 of Chapter 10
May those caught in the freezing ice be warmed, And from great clouds of Bodhisattvas Torrents rain in boundless streams To cool those burning in infernal fires.
Page(s) 164
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
གྲང་བས་ཉམ་ཐག་དྲོ་ཐོབ་ཤོག །
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྲིན་ཆེན་ལས། ། བྱུང་བའི་ཆུ་བོ་མཐའ་ཡས་ཀྱིས། །
ཚ་བས་ཉམ་ཐག་བསིལ་བར་ཤོག །grang bas nyam thag dro thob shog_/
byang chub sems dpa'i sprin chen las/_/ byung ba'i chu bo mtha' yas kyis/_/
tsha bas nyam thag bsil bar shog_/Concerning the phrase, "To cool those burning in infernal fires": It is said in the Verse Summary of the Six Realms of Beings:[2]
Attachment and delusion, fear and anger— Any human who kills a human, And also those who kill at birth— These will go to the Reviving Hell.
It continues:
Whoever, holding nihilistic views, Teaches wrong Dharma and non-Dharma, And causes others to generate defilements . . .
And also:
One who harms those superior in qualities, Or who kills father, mother, or guru— That person will burn in the Avīci Hell.
As stated above, by accumulating such karmas, one is born in the eight hot hells: Reviving Hell, Black Line Hell, Crushing Hell, Howling Hell, Great Howling Hell, Hot Hell, Very Hot Hell, and Avīci Hell.
Being burned in these hells by their respective fires is said to be utterly unbearable. The fire of ordinary combustion, blacksmith's fire, sandalwood fire, the world-ending conflagration, and the fire of the eight hot hells increase in heat successively, each being four times hotter than the previous.
When Maudgalyāyana once brought a spark of hellfire the size of a mustard seed in his alms bowl, all beings across the four continents, as well as the gods of the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, felt as though they had become hell-beings. Knowing that casting it elsewhere would harm sentient beings, Maudgalyāyana miraculously summoned four streams of water to extinguish it.
Regarding the lifespan in these hells, it is said:
In the six hells, beginning with the Reviving Hell, One day equals the lifespan of the desire realm gods. Therefore, the duration of life in each of them Is comparable to that of the gods of the desire realm. As for the fiercely hot Avīci Hell— Its duration is one intermediate eon. For animals, it is a supreme great eon; For hungry ghosts, it is five hundred month-days.
As explained in The Treasury of Knowledge, the Verse Summary of the Six Realms, and related texts, when the causes, lifespans, body sizes, and sufferings of those in the lower realms are described in detail—together with the faults of what is to be abandoned and the corresponding antidotes—it is said that fear and dread can arise in the minds of those to be tamed.
Story 3 of Chapter 10
And those engulfed in fiery Vaitaraṇī, Their flesh destroyed, their bones bleached white as kunda flowers, May they, through all my merits’ strength, have godlike forms And sport with goddesses in Mandākinī’s peaceful streams.113Vaitaraṇī: name of a river in hell. Mandākinī: name of a river in heaven.
Page(s) 164
Blankleder, Helena, and Wulstan Fletcher (Padmakara Translation Group), trans. The Way of the Bodhisattva: A Translation of the Bodhicharyāvatāra. By Śāntideva. Rev. ed. Shambhala Classics. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2006.
ཆུ་བོ་རབ་མེད་མེ་དང་འདྲ་ནང་བྱིང་བ་དག །
ཤ་ཀུན་ཞིག་གྱུར་རུས་གོང་མེ་ཏོག་ཀུན་དའི་མདོག ། བདག་གི་དགེ་བའི་སྟོབས་ཀྱིས་ལྷ་ཡི་ལུས་ཐོབ་ནས། །
ལྷ་མོ་རྣམས་དང་ལྷན་ཅིག་དལ་གྱིས་འབབ་གནས་ཤོག །chu bo rab med me dang 'dra nang bying ba dag_/
sha kun zhig gyur rus gong me tog kun da'i mdog_/ bdag gi dge ba'i stobs kyis lha yi lus thob nas/_/
lha mo rnams dang lhan cig dal gyis 'bab gnas shog_/Concerning the phrase, "sport with goddesses in Mandākinī’s peaceful streams": By performing certain virtuous actions that are still tainted by contamination, one may be reborn as a human in one of the four continents, as a god among the six classes of the desire realm, in one of the seventeen abodes of the form realm, or within the four spheres of the formless realm. Thus, the causes and results of contaminated happiness should be explained in terms of body size, lifespan, and degree of experienced pleasure [in these realms].
Then, by accumulating virtuous actions associated with meditative absorptions or proper dedication, one attains temporary results such as the five paths and the ten bodhisattva bhūmis. The ultimate result is full enlightenment—perfect buddhahood—endowed with twenty-one categories of undefiled qualities and other sublime attributes. All of these should be explained in detail, thereby cultivating thorough skill in knowing what to adopt and what to abandon.
End of Chapter Ten
Colophon: Explanation of the Conclusion
Third, Explanation of the Conclusion.
Although I have explained this well, Taking as authority the words of the sage and all their commentaries, Still, whatever contradictions and errors may have arisen Due to my mind being under the sway of childishness, I respectfully request the noble ones to forgive them.
May this wondrous and precious garland of story-commentary, Arising from my ocean-like intention to benefit, Completely dispel the poverty of beings' minds, And enrich them with the glory of the Omniscient Victorious One.
May I, too, be upheld by Mañjuśrī, Endowed with the wealth of hearing, reflection, and meditation; And swiftly attaining the accomplishment of the four kāyas as the result, May I delight in the glory of Samantabhadra.
This excellent and accurate text was prepared at the sincere urging of the virtuous and noble spiritual friend Yontan Zangpo. Maṅgalaṃ bhavantu! Śubham! Checked and corrected.
